Kauan - Ice Fleet (2021)

It’s April 2021 and our favorite Russians masquerading as Finns by way of Ukraine and Estonia1 are back with their ninth studio release. Ice Fleet is their first album laced with any English (in its title) and tells the true story of an unidentified fleet of ships discovered in Northern Russia in 1930, with its crew and cargo perfectly frozen in time. Kauan offered some of the best post-metal of the 2010s, culminating in the delicate and stirring Kaiho in 2017. It arguably deserved a spot on my list given that I return to it more than most from that year, so what are my thoughts with the passing of 4 years?

Above all else, Ice Fleet is an evocative release. It’s the sound of the distant wilderness, an icy landscape untroubled by humanity’s touch. Its freezing synths, melancholic post rock, powerful atmosphere and triumphant metal edge forge a unique and uniquely affecting album. Previous Kauan releases used vocals judiciously but here they’re sparser than ever, bolstering the delicate, pure tone. Simple melodies loop for minutes at a time with only subtle adornments and development, layering clean guitar tones, fragile synths and unhurried piano keys for the majority of its run-time. Within this majority it’s a record falling more into post-rock than post-metal.

The typical progression is for dynamic metal bands to become lighter through their careers. This was also the case for Kauan until Ice Fleet which shows the band balancing their beautiful softer tendencies with a heavier edge we’ve not heard since 2015’s Sorni Nai. “Enne” opens things on a slower, moodier note but “Taistelu” quickly accelerates with swelling strings before crashing into heavier guitars and drums. Savage growls lend grit and power to the heaviest moments, which find the group expanding their sonic palette from Kaiho. The record is still overwhelmingly melodic and emotive but this thicker streak makes it more rounded. And despite the wintry tone, the heavier leads are gilded with hope, conferring a greater feeling of agency on its listener. The weaving of the lonely, soft passages with the uplifting, heavier ones is exceptionally subtle (except in the few moments where the transitions are deliberately blunt), and the heavier passages accentuate the moody, emotive strengths of the record.

Besides this duality of soft and heavy, there’s compositionally not much to write about here. The leads loop, the arrangements slowly ebb and flow and the instruments are simple. And yet it achieves so much more with these few tools than other bands stuffing their records full of riffs, rhythms and instruments. The core melodies are hypnotic and powerful enough to carry their tracks, and the gradual song-writing pushes the compositions towards meaningful but natural climaxes. Additions as simple as one synth line in the first half of “Taistelu,” or stripping away the guitar melody towards its conclusion to expose just a piano and synth harmonization, change the course of the track, and by extension the entire album. Ice Fleet does so much with so little and it’s a testament to care above abandon.

Another asset is its pacing. Ice Fleet is a cohesive record which is loosely broken apart into tracks, and is not just individual songs collected together. Tracks bleed together just as the music flows within them. It’s hypnotic but never dull, developing frequently enough to stave off boredom but not so frequently as to lose its deliberacy. “Ote” uses its dynamism to build to a surprisingly grand finale which offers a strong contrast to the often sparse compositions; it’s a conclusion that feels natural given the subtle developments and measured pace. And the excellent pacing results in a lovely finale on “Hauta” which blends crashing guitars with smooth synths and poignant clean vocals, delivering a payoff promised much earlier in the introduction of “Ote.” A muted piano line hints towards the heart-breaking melody it becomes 10 minutes later. The power of this track combination is that even the early suggestions of what the melody becomes moves me.

Kauan have written a wonderful record here, progressing from the softer atmosphere of Kaiho while drawing from the grittier edges of Pirut. It dances above any particular criticism I could muster. I initially landed on a 3.5 as I doubted that its quality reached high enough but after much consideration I’m compelled to elevate its award as I know it will at least challenge my top 10 albums for this year. Is Ice Fleet the best of their discography? The jury is out while it marinates, as no Kauan record is immediate, but it’s undoubtedly powerful and will undoubtedly appease existing fans of both the band and post-music generally.